Frustration: Trying to Make a Book Trailer

In my music video days, putting together a video was relatively simple. Granted, there was no actual "video"; it was all pictures, but that doesn't mean my videos were just a sloppy mish-mash. There is an art to it. However, I found appropriate images in abundance. I accumulated so many that I had to choose which ones to use and which to reject.

Now, with free video clips available on a multitude of sites, video versus images is pretty much a no-brainer. People like movement. But while numerous clips can be found online, finding the right ones is nearly impossible. 

I've started browsing Pexels with a vague storyboard in mind, trying to capture the main themes of my novel ~ Leah on stage, preferably with a band; Leah working in the bar, a depiction of a small town, perhaps some major music venue action, etc. I accept the fact that I won't find a good representation of Leah as she's described in the story, but that's a minor point. Just these broad themes alone are too obscure? They don't seem obscure to me.

After endless scrolling (I even stopped entering keyword searches and just started scrolling random clips), I flipped over to images. At least there I was able to find matches for some very basic queries. Thus, if this project gets off the ground at all, it'll be a mix of video and still photos. Then, of course, I'll need to find music clips for it, but I have bookmarked some free sites that I can browse for those. 

I suppose the good news is, book trailers are meant to be short. They're not movies; they're ads. It's a shame that my heart's not really in it; I used to love making music videos. All a book trailer would mean for me would be new content for my website. I'm quite certain that no one is going on YouTube to search for generic book trailers.

I'm at a standstill as far as anything sales-related, and I'm not willing to try anymore. Even my author email has weirdly slowed down. I used to get a ton of new reading material and/or promo offers, but it's as if everyone realizes that I'm a lost cause.

Welcome to my new normal.